Ashley ploy or play ?

[madras]

ploy.......do you think this was ashleys ploy all along. to buy and sell quickish for a profit ?

 

play.......bought a toy he couldn't quite control and is fortunate to get out without getting burned ?

[Dave]

I'm really not sure any more.

 

I always stuck up for him and initially that statement struck me as kinda sad that it'd not worked out for him here.

 

However I've grown more and more suspicious of how he's willing to throw it all away so quickly; he's shown no faith at all in the system that he's set up and championed on numerous occasions.

 

Perhaps as with many things in life, the answer lies somewhere in the middle. Maybe he came with good intentions, found things pretty tough and with the credit crunch and Sports Direct not doing so well decided to use the whole Keegan affair to get out whilst helping out his bank balance a bit.

[maze]

I'm really not sure any more.

 

I always stuck up for him and initially that statement struck me as kinda sad that it'd not worked out for him here.

 

However I've grown more and more suspicious of how he's willing to throw it all away so quickly; he's shown no faith at all in the system that he's set up and championed on numerous occasions.

 

Perhaps as with many things in life, the answer lies somewhere in the middle. Maybe he came with good intentions, found things pretty tough and with the credit crunch and Sports Direct not doing so well decided to use the whole Keegan affair to get out whilst helping out his bank balance a bit.

 

Second

[Ronaldo]

intentions were good, execution was shit. But it does strikes me as pretty strange that a self-made billionaire would conceed defeat so quickly

[TRon]

I would say the second option. If he wanted to sell quick, there were obviously buyers all along, supposedly Man City's big spending Sheikhs wanted in but got knocked back at the time. Ambani flew to England but got no encouragement. Since the fans protested suddenly there are all sorts coming out of the woodwork to buy in. Obviously something has changed.

[juniatmoko]

ploy - seeing changing ownership between EPL so quickly this decades (started with abramovic) seeing there quite business opportunity there.... acting like a condor looking for victim. got NUFC from disappointing Fat Fred. got his victim quite cheap. Sell it ASAP after opportunity comes arrived by searching deeper pocket. NUFC had been treated as speculative as a Stock Market.

[EthiGeordie]

  iT IS HARD TO TALK ABOUT THIS SORT OF THINGS AT THE HEAT OF THE MOMMENT SO LETS FINISH THE COURSE AND hISTORY WILL DECIDE THIS

 

[Guest Darth Toon]

Perhaps as with many things in life, the answer lies somewhere in the middle. Maybe he came with good intentions, found things pretty tough and with the credit crunch and Sports Direct not doing so well decided to use the whole Keegan affair to get out whilst helping out his bank balance a bit.

 

That probably about covers it IMO. I certainly don't think it was a cynical ploy right from the start, but I don't think you get to be a billionaire by dropping projects the second you hit a bit of resistance (unless in by doing so you can still make a profit I suppose - ah sod it, I just don't know anymore!)

[Skirge]

Play -He had some good ideas just went about them all wrong, Arsenal are good at finding young kids for not much money, its a great thing to do but not easy to set up.

Your manager has to have final say and if young talent can not be found that he likes enough you have to back him with money.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

I believe he bought the club as a plaything so he could have a bit of fun and go to matches etc. Then he thought he could continue running it cheaply by implementing his recruitment system, a need compounded by the extra debt he discovered after not completing his due diligence properly.

 

He then brought back the wrong manager to fit into the system, maybe because he was naive about Keegan and what he meant to people here.

 

Keegan then walks, the chaos ensues, and Ashley bottles out very easily when he realises it won't be fun anymore.

 

I was a fan of Ashley, but the way he caved in and put the club up for sale brings him down in my estimations. If he really thought owning a football club was just going to be a pie, pint and popular decisions he was an idiot. That's his biggest problem IMO.

[Guest Heneage]

ploy.......do you think this was ashleys ploy all along. to buy and sell quickish for a profit ?

 

play.......bought a toy he couldn't quite control and is fortunate to get out without getting burned ?

The latter it's being reported he is far from self made to selll for a profit he'd had to invest and improve something he's not done.

[UV]

prey.....he originally intended to milk the club's revenue while also using us as a shop window for players, but soon realised it's not as easy to stay mid table as it looks so is getting out at the first opportunity.

 

I don't believe for a second he intended to put £20m/year into the club, and his "plan" such as it was would have merely turned us into a breeding ground for younger players which we would sell once we got an offer "too good to turn down". Any potential onfield success would have been temporary and only as a by product of the main goal of financial return.

[Mr Logic]

ploy.......do you think this was ashleys ploy all along. to buy and sell quickish for a profit ?

 

play.......bought a toy he couldn't quite control and is fortunate to get out without getting burned ?

 

I don't know what to think.. 

[ChezGiven]

When he first took over the club people were asking 'why?' as they didnt see how to make money out of football.

 

My answer then was that the re-sale value of football clubs was increasing exponentially and in the current financial climate (the markets have been trending badly for a long time), selling within 2-3 years would have been a fair initial assessment.

 

As with most investments you are looking to manage the downside risk. You diversify portfolios to manage this. In this situation, I believe he wanted to have a go at making the club a success but knew that if it went wrong he could sell and still beat any other market investment. If he takes 70m profit off a 18 month 230m investment he has made a phenomenal amount and hats off to him. The twat.

[Guest TheKingOfNewcastle]

Ploy. The press had Keegan's unrest spot on from day one, and they said Ashley would sell up almost from day one. This, coupled with Ashley having some kind of unstable personallity disorder and making bold statements and failing to back them up leads me to believe he is a dodgy fucker who was just looking to make a quick killing.

[Guest]

Ploy. The press had Keegan's unrest spot on from day one, and they said Ashley would sell up almost from day one. This, coupled with Ashley having some kind of unstable personallity disorder and making bold statements and failing to back them up leads me to believe he is a dodgy fucker who was just looking to make a quick killing.

 

So why didn't Keegan walk out from day one?

[bulivye]

play.

 

 

he went from  "out of his depth" to "out of his mind.."

[Guest TheKingOfNewcastle]

Ploy. The press had Keegan's unrest spot on from day one, and they said Ashley would sell up almost from day one. This, coupled with Ashley having some kind of unstable personallity disorder and making bold statements and failing to back them up leads me to believe he is a dodgy fucker who was just looking to make a quick killing.

 

So why didn't Keegan walk out from day one?

 

He was suckered into believing them like most on here, until the penny dropped?

[madras]

Ploy. The press had Keegan's unrest spot on from day one, and they said Ashley would sell up almost from day one. This, coupled with Ashley having some kind of unstable personallity disorder and making bold statements and failing to back them up leads me to believe he is a dodgy fucker who was just looking to make a quick killing.

 

So why didn't Keegan walk out from day one?

 

He was suckered into believing them like most on here, until the penny dropped?

so as player after player came in without his say so he didn't twig. not sure i'd want a manager that thick......................SO DON'T MAKE OUT HE WAS.

[Guest TheKingOfNewcastle]

Ploy. The press had Keegan's unrest spot on from day one, and they said Ashley would sell up almost from day one. This, coupled with Ashley having some kind of unstable personallity disorder and making bold statements and failing to back them up leads me to believe he is a dodgy fucker who was just looking to make a quick killing.

 

So why didn't Keegan walk out from day one?

 

He was suckered into believing them like most on here, until the penny dropped?

so as player after player came in without his say so he didn't twig. not sure i'd want a manager that thick......................SO DON'T MAKE OUT HE WAS.

 

I wasn't making out he was. Just suggesting a possible reason. (note the question mark) Something kept Keegan there all summer. Promises that were subsequently broken is only a suggestion.